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Hello and Welcome

Hello and Welcome to Spotlight on North Staffordshire and The Potteries.

Spotlight’s mission is to use our region’s unique heritage and culture to encourage regeneration by giving local people pride in the past, confidence in the present and hope for the future.

Since 1990, Spotlight’s historical geographer Betty Cooper and her husband international heritage lawyer David Martin have undertaken significant original research into North Staffordshire’s history and architectural heritage.

Born in The Rookery, Betty was educated at Brownhills High School in Tunstall and at Manchester University where she wrote her thesis on the economic development of The Potteries.

Betty’s research work enabled her to produce the first map of medieval Tunstall, which was a market town and administrative centre surrounded by six fields.

Betty and David have written extensively about North Staffordshire’s heritage, and their articles have been syndicated in Australia, Canada and the USA.

Topics they have written about include:

Architects and Heritage Buildings

Schools and Colleges

Hospitals and Workhouses

Industry and Commerce

Churches and Chapels

Roads, Railways and Canals

Parks and Gardens

Local Personalities

Theatres and Cinemas.

From time to time, the articles they wrote about North Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent’s heritage along with other features about our area will be posted on this site.